The present invention relates to improvements in devices for preventing tipping of storage cabinets and the like when the drawers are opened and particularly to an anchor clip for cooperating with the feet on the cabinet to latch the cabinet in vertical position.
It has long been a problem to prevent storage cabinets from tipping when too many drawers are extended or where the extended weight exceeds the weight in cabinet housing. Various devices have heretofore been proposed for overcoming this problem. One of such devices has been referred to as "one drawer at a time". Devices of such type were built into the cabinets and were expensive, have malfunctions, can be over-ridden to defeat the purpose and, therefore, are not 100% effective. The problem of preventing storage cabinets from tipping is particularly critical where the cabinets have multiple drawers and contain very heavy objects. For example, for parts storage, modular drawer cabinets are used and they may have from 10 to 20 drawers with each drawer holding as much as several hundred pounds of parts. When an employee is filling an order from the stock room it is desirable that he be able to have more than one drawer of the cabinet open at one time so as to reduce the time required to fill each order. When several of these drawers filled with heavy parts are opened at the same time it can readily be seen that this presents a severe safety problem to prevent the cabinet from tipping and injuring the employee. Other types of devices have been used to prevent tipping and one of such is floor anchoring. The most common approach to floor anchoring has been to drill holes in the floor and install anchors, remove the drawers in the cabinet for access to the cabinet bottom, drill holes in the cabinet bottom above the floor anchors, install hold-down screws or bolts and then replace the cabinet drawers. Another approach has been to drill holes in the floor and attach a bracket thereto. The cabinet is moved into position so that the two bottom channels or feet on the cabinet slip over two extending arms of the bracket. The bottom drawer of the cabinet is removed and a locking bar bolted to the bottom of the cabinet. The bottom drawer is then replaced.
From the foregoing it will be seen that the majority of the anti-tipping devices have required removal of the drawers of the cabinet in order to secure the cabinet in position. It would be desirable to provide an anti-tipping device which would not require drawer removal or the attachment of an auxiliary bracket to complete the installation. It would be desirable to provide an anchor clip for preventing tipping of storage cabinets which anchor clip can readily be bolted to the floor and wherein the cabinet can be slid into place for cooperating with the anchor clips which automatically will latch the cabinet in position. It would further be desirable that the anchor clips be unlatched from the cabinet when desired without the necessity of removing any of the cabinet drawers.